Reach Out & Read!!!

Reach out and Read, indeed!!! I love a group that is organized sufficiently to plan ahead. Plan ahead, indeed!! Yesterday I shared brunch with Claudia Barrett, Health Literacy Coordinator at Nationwide Children's Hospital and her amazing contingent of staff members and groupies dedicated to young children and their 'health literacy.' How much do you LUV the term 'health literacy'??


It turns out that my adopted home town of Columbus Ohio is "Reach out and Read's" largest program in the ENTIRE country!!! I beam with pride as I learn that last year at health care centers across the city, a total of 59,522 brand new books were 'prescribed' by family physicians at healthy well-baby visits to children from infancy to age 5. In addition to those shiny brand new books another 83,061 gently-used and donated books found new homes.

While these numbers are amazing in themselves.... what is even more amazing is that the Columbus brainstorm of "Reach Out and Read" includes amazing volunteer programs that take place in these same 10 satellite physician waiting rooms. Volunteers last year gave 3,579 hours to the literacy program and another 1,291 hours to the music component of the program!! Yes. You heard me correctly. Over twelve hundred hours of music programming took place last year in the waiting rooms of health care centers across Columbus!!! Does this strike you as brilliant? Captive waiting room audience: Volunteers + music + children = Literacy health programing!! Wow!!!

I also received an amazing folder with fantastic handouts. Here's just a few tidbits from the official Reach out and Read flier regarding music.

REACH OUT AND READ

The Music and Early Literacy Connection

• Babies naturally hear & respond to music, which is their first language. 
• Songs have rhythm, repetition & rhyme built in.
• Songs & finger plays consist of repetition. Vocabulary is better retained in songs where children are invited to join in. 
• Melodies divide words into smaller parts and present language in patterns that make sense to the brain. 
• Songs naturally divide words into syllables and sounds so they are internatlized. The built in repetition & rhyme increases understanding and retention. 
• Children already know melodies through nursery rhymes and can participate in reading.  

 Does this sound like everything that I say in my workshop presentations? Sing it, babies!!

From studies published in peer-reviewed medical journals:

• High-risk urban families participating in Reach Out and Read read more frequently to their children. Children exposed to ROR had higher receptive language scores and expressive language scores. Increased exposure to ROR led to larger increases in language scores.
• English & non-English speaking families who participated in the ROR model increased their weekly bedtime reading.

 

So what does all this have to do with me? With fireworks?

I have been invited to participate with the Columbus Reach Out and Read program's annual fund raiser which is in collaboration with Columbus annual fireworks extravaganza, "Red, White and BOOM." The fundraiser is called "Read, White and BOOM!"

We were all in agreement that a quasi-local author with a children's picture book entitled, "Red, White and Blue" that concludes with fireworks could be a perfect addition to a day of family festivities designed to support children's health literacy. I lLUV planning ahead. I LUV being 'discovered' by a program that is a PERFECT fit for my experience. So I now have plans to be in central OH next July!!! Planning  ahead!!!! 

****A reminder that the promo code for my picture book, "Red, White and Blue" continues through the end of the month of September. Using the promo code: RWB911 will save you 20% off the cover price of the book, by ordering through my website.